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Meta

Hey all you OHKOers, this is Pikkdogs here with a strategy article. Starting Pokemon have been important since the rotation. But, the way they are used have changed a lot over the summer. To find out what will happen with them from now on, lets look back at what happened with Starters.

Before the Rotation

Before the rotation, most decks did not have a starter, decks were fast enough where you could probably do a decent attack on turn 1. The decks that had a starter were Gyarados and Sabledonk, both of these decks ran Sableye. Gyarados used it because that made it easier to put Magikarps in the discard pile, Sabledonk used it because it relied on two supporters working together in one turn. Besides those exceptions, starting Pokemon were laughed at.

Leading up to Nationals

With the rotation Pokemon decks have lost a lot of draw power because of the loss of Uxie. To respond to the HGSS on format, people have been using starting Pokemon in there deck. These starting Pokemon have allowed decks to setup quickly without the need for draw power from Pokemon like Claydol or Uxie.